FIFA 14: 5 Ways EA Can Improve Pro Clubs

Screams have echoed through homes in frustration while celebratory roars gleefully bounce off the walls in response to a last minute goal. These are two of the mainstream emotions a typical game of FIFA can conjure up on a daily basis, and two that keep us coming back for that one more match Groundhog Day cycle that very few titles possess.

FIFA 14 has been successfully selling since its release and in typical FIFA fashion it isn’t likely to drop out of the top 20 selling titles until the next incarnation. Christmas, or whatever you want to call it, is upon us once again which will usher in a fresh user base over the next few weeks that plan to batter the onion bag of their opponents online on their wonky strut to that promotion podium.

As expected, FIFA 14 comes rammed with game modes to keep you occupied well into next season. At the moment the bread and butter seem to lay within Ultimate Team but we here at WhatCulture feel that one mode in particular could be doing with a bit more polish. That mode is Pro Clubs.

Pro Clubs is a hugely popular online venture where you can team up with one, or if you’re Mr Popular, eleven friends to compete online against rivals clubs in your mission to march to victory. Clubs begins with you creating your own virtual professional player so us vastly less talented platypus footed footballing shambles of men and women can live out our impossible dream of lining out for Barcelona, Arsenal, Juventus, or if you’re so inclined, the mighty Derry City in the Irish league.

EA have almost mastered the feel of letting us believe we’re not entirely useless on the pitch during Pro Clubs. Although with all majestic maestro touches FIFA 14 produces, as expected there are a few hiccups to drown out that will take Pro Clubs onto the next plateau of brilliance.

Here we present five ways EA can improve on Pro Clubs for FIFA 15 and beyond.

Discussion

9 Comments

No.2: Your description for the offside situation needs some work. From what I can gather, what you describe is actually offside. Passing the ball to a teammate who is ‘behind’ the GK and there is only 1 other defender between your teammate and the goal at the time of the pass, constitutes an offside. If you meant something else with your description, then you’ve confused me.

I think what I wrote is correct. If the goalkeeper is out of his goal but has defenders behind him, and your striker is behind the goalkeeper but in front of the defenders then it is still onside. In real life it happens often in corners when a keeper comes to punch the ball but misses and striker taps it in, when a player or two are on the posts.

I have drawn a very very crude example of what I mean, but maybe it didn’t come across that well when I wrote it out which is my fault, although Greg below me understands what I mean.

Ah. Re-read the offside bit, and the ‘(s)’ bit on the end of the word ‘defender’ threw me. If it was simply plural, then no, you wouldn’t be offside. If it is just ‘a defender’, then you would be offside. If that glitch exists in Pro Club it’s pretty damn glaring seeing as how they’ve managed to make the rest of the game so lifelike.

To be onside you’ll need 2 members of the opposing team between you and the goal, in general people think that there should only be 1 defender, but the goalkeeper also counts as one, so if the opposing teams goalkeeper is up high on the pitch, then you’ll need to have 2 defenders between you and the goal to prevent the offside

i was expecting this article to be a lot better than this all these things you’ve mentioned are rubbish.
Your 4th point makes no sense. Surely if your a player ranked between 80-85 and your a div 5-10 team and you come across a div 1 or 2 team surely its realistic that these pros are better than yours?
People invest time into getting them stats its not like theres absolutely loads of people ranked 92 cam or 90 strikers theres only a handful on the leader boards so what your saying about this makes no sense, well the bit you say about it being unfair and frustrating (that another player has better stats than you LOL) … Its simply how football is. Some teams are worse than others some players are quicker/stronger than others blah blah stop moaning and spend some time raising your guys stats.
I agree the accomplishment system needs to be changed so that when you complete an accomplishment it doesn’t raise stats automatically for you.
FOR EXAMPLE. I complete a shooting accomplishment (100 Goals) instead of raising my finishing stat automatically i should unlock a progress point in which i can spend on ANY of my shooting stats. (Shot power, Long shots, Finishing, Volleys, Heading, Etc)
Obviously have a cap on the number of accomplishments you can unlock so as to not have 99 of everything, but make it so we have greater control of what stats each individual pro has. Will also make for more interesting match ups and more varied pros.

The offside rule in FIFA is right? It is if you are behind the second last man so if a keeper has pushed up for some stupid reason and a defender is back then the offside rule still stands that someone is called offside if they are ahead of the 2nd last man. Position the player plays in is irrelevant isn’t it?